Bowen Island Marine Atlas Project

How did First Nations people use Bowen Island before white settlers came?

Where do winter sea ducks congregate?

In which streams do salmon spawn? What kind are they?

What whale species swim past our shores?

What best practices can protect our beaches, eelgrassbeds, and salmon spawning beds?

Imagine that Bowen Island had source of reliable information to answer questions like these, about our local shores and marine environment.

The Bowen Island Conservancy and its partners launched a project in January 2019 to publish, by mid 2020, a Bowen/Nexwlélexm Marine Conservation Atlas to foster public awareness of, and engagement in, local marine conservation issues, and to celebrate the recovery of our marine neighbourhood. We’ve launched this project because, though we’re an island community defined by the waters that surround us, to date there has been no such telling of our marine story.

The Bowen Island Marine Conservation Atlas will be built out of the input of many voices. Layers of scientific data will be overlaid by local knowledge from citizen scientists, fishers, divers, and Traditional Knowledge from Coast Salish members. It will address 15-20 themes, illustrated with maps, text, and photos. It will be given to Bowen schools and the Library, sold through local stores to islanders and visitors, and provided online in PDF format.

Want to help?

Would you like to be involved with the Atlas project?

Do you have some insights into the marine environment around the Island that should be included in the Atlas?

Are you able to help defray the costs of the project (map preparation, printing costs, for example) with a financial donation?